Building Momentum For 2020 Legislative Session

Published by JD Rossetti in The Rebel on September 27, 2019

Personal Property Rights Are A Protected Civil Liberty
We have already begun to work toward the 2020 legislative session. As previously mentioned, next year we will continue to work to promote the passage of House Bill 2107, prohibiting employer searches of personal property as related to employee owned vehicles prime sponsored by Representative Blake, D-19 Aberdeen. We are encouraged by the bi-partisan support we have received by co-sponsor Representative Jim Walsh, R-19 Longview.

Tremendous support is building within the Washington State labor community to promote and pass this important legislation during the 2020 short legislative session. In the meantime, AWPPW leaders presented this issue to labor leaders from across Washing- ton at the Washington State Labor Council’s 2019 convention. No matter what happens, we will continue to gain momentum through dialogue with legislators and stakeholders in order to ensure worker personal property rights are a protected civil liberty.

We will also continue to encourage the legislature to move forward with a plastic bag ban without giving a windfall to grocers at the expense of consumers and workers. Our legislators and our state should support the sustainable, locally manufactured paper bags to help solve plastic bag pollution.

The Protecting the Right to Organize Act
U.S. Sen. Patty Murray has introduced The Protecting the Right to Organize Act, which would establish and enforce a time limit for companies to recognize and bargain with unions, give existing union protections some teeth by establishing financial penalties for companies that engage in illegal retaliation, secure the rights of workers to join class-action lawsuits and increasing transparency between labor and management.

The NLRB would seek an immediate injunction to reinstate a worker fired for organizing activity, letting them work while their case is still pending instead of facing a period of unemployment.

Happy Labor Day!
Labor Day is a good time to remember who we are. Involvement in the legislative and political processes has been an important aspect of the AWPPW since the organization’s inception. The primary objectives continue
to be promoting the collective interest of a higher income, better working conditions, workers’ rights and defending labor laws. As always, I am grateful for the opportunity to provide these updates. The 2020 Legislative session is right around the corner and we need active members, like you, to step up to testify in Olympia, make phone calls to legislators and promote the working family. Contact me for more information on ways you might help.

Sincerely,
— JD Rossetti
Washington Legislative & Political Director Washington Area Council, AWPPW